Positive day

Sturgis opened the Portage Northern Tournament Saturday by beating arch rival Coldwater, before having their day ended in the Gold Bracket quarterfinals.

The Lady Trojans defeated Coldwater 25-15, 25-23, them lost to Schoolcraft 25-22, 25-21 in pool play.

In the first round of power pool play, Sturgis defeated Lakeview 25-20, 25-23 and ten split with Otsego 24-26, 25-23.

In the quarterfinals the Lady Trojans lost 25-17, 25-18.

“We saw some good competition and I thought we did a nice job against both Coldwater and Lakeview,” coach Von Metzger said. “We have got to work hard on getting other hitters to help our offense.

“Right now Rachel (Anderson) is carrying too much of the offensive load,” Metzger added. “We also must continue to improve our defense as we move farther into our league schedule.”

Kelsey Metzger led the Lady Trojans with 79 assists, 21 kills, 25 digs, six aces and one block.

Rachel Anderson had a team high 55 kills and had 21 digs, 14 blocks, three aces and three assists.

Also for Sturgis were, Jamie Lioy with 25 digs, 12 kills, two blocks, one assist and one ace, Hannah Marchand added 19 digs, 11 assists, 10 kills, five aces and two blocks and Hollie Myers had 25 digs, 16 kills, nine blocks, three aces and one assist.

Morgan Pueschel had 15 digs, two aces and one assist and Paige Robinson recorded four blocks and one kill.

Bronson also took part in the Portage Northern invite. Like Sturgis the Lady Vikings lost in the Gold Bracket semifinals.

Bronson opened pool play with a win over the host Huskies 25-20, 25-21. The Lady Vikes fell to Harper Creek 25-23, 25-23.

In power pool Bronson lost to Wayland 25-12, 27-25, they then beat Paw Paw 25-16, 25-15.

In the quarters, the Lady Vikings lost to Flushing 25-23, 26-24.

“We really struggled offensively (hitting and blocking) today,” Bronson coach Jean LaClair said. “But, we held our own against some pretty good teams. Jill Pyles continues to get better, she was definitely a spark plug today for us.”

LaClair also said that Kassidy Bystry came up with some great digs against some very good hitting teams.

Mallorie Bassage added 17 kills, four digs and one ace, Jill Pyles had 14 kills, eight aces and five digs, Kirin Cekander added eight kills and seven digs, Grace Pyles had 22 digs and eight aces and Bystry recorded a team high 50 digs and added five aces and two kills.

Three Rivers beat Concord 25-22, 25-17 in pool play but fell to Flushing 17-25, 22-25. The Lady Wildcats also split matches with Okemos 25-18, 22-25 and Niles 25-22, 22-25.

After pool play Three Rivers was placed into the silver bracket, where they beat Grandville 25-22, 25-18 in the first round but fell to Otsego 16-25, 23-25 in the next round.